Saw: The Videogame Review - PS3

Game Description: Utilizing Unreal Engine 3 technology, the video game entry in the Saw franchise aims to deliver all of the horror and terror of the film series in stark, startling detail. Jigsaw's puzzles are far from finished, and in this game, you get to see Saw again in a whole new way in a plot that weaves back and forth through the various film plots and answers questions left unanswered in the movies.

Saw: The Videogame Review

The Saw film series isn't exactly known for its subtlety. Rather, it's about ingenious traps and devices that cause pain and gore, ostensibly to pressure characters into improving their lives. The setup should work for gaming, but in playable form, Saw: The Videogame spends so much time maintaining tension that there's never any real release or payoff, and the experience feels like one very long flatline.

The Pros

Dense, sickly atmosphere

Great voice work from Tobin 'Jigsaw' Bell

A few good puzzle designs

The Cons

Controls are sluggish and imprecise

Energy level is a flatline

Puzzles and traps are too repetitive

The Saw film series isn't exactly known for its subtlety. Rather, it's about ingenious traps and devices that cause pain and gore, ostensibly to pressure characters into improving their lives, but really just to thrill the audience. The setup should work for gaming, especially when all the action is set in a seriously run-down mental asylum. But in playable form, Saw: The Videogame spends so much time maintaining tension that there's never any real release or payoff, and the experience feels like one very long flatline.

Are You the Keymaster?

You're Detective Tapp, last seen as incarnated by Danny Glover in the original film. Tapp awakens within the bowels of a hideously decaying asylum, only to be told by Jigsaw (via an array of TVs, as is the puppetmaster's M.O.) that a key is implanted within his chest. Problem is, there are a whole bunch of other loons also trapped in the asylum, and they all need that key to unlock their freedom. Jigsaw doesn't kill people so much as provide them, or others, with the means to their demise.

So Tapp is told to find and rescue a handful of people related to his history while avoiding the aggressive other “inmates” who want to crack him like a walnut to get that key. From there, Saw proceeds very much like a simplified version of the first film. Tapp will contend with traps large and small, ranging from a simple shotgun rigged to blow his head off after opening a door, to a swinging industrial axe blade threatening to cleave another cop in two.

You'll meet a few familiar characters, and the script assumes a pretty thorough memory of their stories as they appear on film. There's enough context in-game that non-fans won't be totally lost, but only just enough. The main element that keeps this experience feeling like the films is the voice of Tobin Bell, who played Jigsaw in the movies and effectively reprises his role here.

It works like this: Tapp wanders a few halls, perhaps picking a lock or solving a small puzzle to earn a key. Small traps, like rigged shotguns, litter the landscape, but most are easily disarmed. Tapp is barefoot, so he has to watch out for broken glass, too (You got your Saw in my Die Hard!). Occasionally he'll be stuck in a locked room and forced to solve a more complex puzzle to forestall death.

At first, these tend to be the game's best puzzles; they're the least repetitive and the most inventive. Some are minor – find the outline of a gun painted on the wall of a morgue, which indicates which door conceals a escape tool -- but several are clever. Some even create a frantic feeling. But those traps are too few, and eventually become repetitive. Granted, they're generally more interesting than the 'boss battle' traps, which invariably feel like too little reward for the slog it takes to reach each one.

Would You Like the Lead Pipe, or Spiky Baseball Bat?

Less intrinsic to the cinema Saw equation, but a lot more essential to the game, is combat. That's where things really break down, but not in the way that Jigsaw might appreciate. Saw's fights recall the encounters in Condemned, but they're a lot less effective. Tapp's movements are molasses slow -- the guy is in really bad shape-- but there isn't a sense of weight or movement, only the floaty, slow feeling that you're not really hitting anything. And regardless of Tapp's condition there's no reason that his strikes should be so sluggish. He's wounded, not drunk.

The controls are slothful throughout the game -- again, arguably justifiable thanks to Tapp's debilitated physical condition -- but in combat they simply become infuriating. While strikes are absurdly slow, the block/dodge move is frequently ineffectual, and the enemy AI is never smart enough to make a win feel like an achievement.

The best kills come when you're able to re-rig a trap you previously disarmed in order to take out a rushing goon. But here the controls are a downside, too. If you've got to race back through a doorway, turn, close and bolt it to slow an enemy before re-setting a trap, good luck. Imprecise controls are a killer. If it seemed more like they were meant to reflect Tapp's physical state, that might be acceptable. Unfortunately, the commands just feel unreliable, period.

Try to Find the Pulse

Saw: The Videogame is creepy, yes, and the mental asylum is actually quite well designed and accurate -- don't ask how I know that. Fans of the film series will definitely dig on the frequent nods back to kills and situations from the five movies. But it doesn't take very long before Saw starts to feel like the same handful of puzzle pieces are being shuffled around over and over. That's just tiring, not frightening.

well dude u shouldnt be the victim you should be jigsaw you know like make almost impossible situations and like if they survive it you go out n kill em anyway{thats not a good ideal but wth the killing them if they succed part or u should jus put them in a never ending trap XD}but still like u can setup ur own impossible situation EVEN THOUGH I REPEATED THAT still that might have been a good move XD but once u come to think of it it might be a stratigy game that would kill the movie :p

Anything 'saw" should be stopped!! Are you kidding me?! This looks so bad that if I was given the option to play it or throw my ps3 away i probably would need sometime to think! But then again, with mw2, uncharted 2, and other awsome games, who needs this????????

dude i thought this game wud be bad but when i played it i enjoyed it there was like 1 or 2 repetitive parts but it was fun and is way better than saw 4 and 5 wait everything is. this game in my honest opinion is a 4 out of 5

awesome review, I really like when its a video review because, well because it's easier then reading.hmm.. I really thought it would be a good game or at least I think it can be a good game with some problem fixes. I think they should re-think the ground structure of tha game and just start over on a new SAW title game.

there are lots of games that are repetitive. Brutal Legend, Prototype, AC, Fallout 3, and Resistance. all of those got good reviews. Saw game is repetitive too. but come on. getting rewarded for dying. how awesome is that!

Saw has been around three movies too many. You can only kill people using interesting traps all for the intent of teaching a lesson for a certain amount amount of time. I mean...didn't Jigsaw die a while back? This game seems like a last ditch effort to cash in on the Saw brand before it's over.

This game is amazing. This review is way off base and is REALLY AMAZING. If your a saw fan game will not disappoint. I really feel like I am part of a saw movie where I am trying to survive for my life.

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